The crash happened in Giza governorate just south of Cairo, when the rear two carriages of a civilian train being used to transport more than 1,300 conscripts to Assiut in southern Egypt came uncoupled on Monday night.

In mid-November, 51 young children on a school trip were killed when their bus was hit by a speeding train at a level crossing. Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president, came under fire over that accident and this latest example of the country's crumbling infrastructure will make calls for Mr Morsi to pay attention to its economic crisis as a matter of urgency even louder.

(KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

After the latest crash, the driver of the train, who according to local media insisted that it had been passed fit for travel before he set off, and the maintenance engineer were both detained pending "routine" questioning.

Like many of Egypt's basic services, its ageing railways are badly in need of an overhaul. A new transport minister was only appointed last week in the latest of many government reshuffles since the revolution of nearly two years ago.

However, with the Egyptian pound sinking fast against the dollar, foreign exchange reserves running out and a big budget deficit, the government is rapidly running out of money. It is negotiating a $4.8 billion dollar (£3 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, but this has been put off a number of times, most recently amid protests against Mr Morsi's seizure of emergency powers last November.Critics say the Muslim Brotherhood, which controls not only the presidency but also the upper house of parliament, is too focused on implementing its conservative view of society to be focused on Egypt's economic problems.

It may also be reluctant to announce much needed structural reforms - on which the IMF loan depends - until after the lower house elections, due in the spring. They will almost certainly entail tax rises and price rises.

On Tuesday, Essam el-Erian, the vice-head of the Brotherhood's front party, the Freedom and Justice Party, issued a statement saying that funding rail development would now be a priority.